4th of July Celebrations

Yeah, I know I'm a little late posting our 4th of July celebrations. We had such a wonderful day. I love the 4th of July. I love being able to spend time with friends and family, but most of all I love celebrating the country I live in. I love being an American and most of all I feel so blessed to live in such a wonderful country. We started off the special day by going to our ward pancake breakfast. I took the TopHat cake to the breakfast. I had really been wanting to make that cake, but didn't want to have to eat all by ourselves. Then we went to the Marelli's. We hung out with Mike, Vanessa, Marco and met thier good friends while we were there. We had a yummy BBQ and let the kids have a great time playing. I made the special "STAR" cake for that get-together! We came home super tired....too tired to even watch fireworks.

Happy Anniversary

We started off as FRIENDS....

Who would of guessed the little boy in the picture picking his nose would marry the little girl in the blue sweater with the cheeser smile? If I would have told Travis in the 8th grade (when this picture was taken) that we would get married someday, do you think he would have smiled in this picture knowing it would be put in our wedding video?

Who would have guessed that my 'first date' would end up my husband?

Homecoming Sophomore year above and Senior year below. Travis got taller and I got shorter hair!

Junior Prom...This was the first time Travis told me "I LOVE YOU!" As time when on we soon realized not only were we best friends but were falling in love. Now as I look back at these pictures I have to laugh. We look pretty little and super cheesy. Whenever I see highschool kids in love I always ask Travis, Did we look that silly? Of course we did, but who cares it was worth it!Now the story behind this picture....Travis was such a good sport. I participated in a food drive for some organization and we had to dress up and go trick or treating for food items. So, I thought it would be funny for me to dress up in his football uniform and he could wear my cheer outfit. Looking back at this picture, what was I thinking making him dress up as a cheerleader? I should have known then it was True Love!
This is more normal! Cheering for Travis was so much fun, however it got to the point that I would spend most of the time yelling at the refs and watching him play....that I would forget to cheer. My cheer advisor actually threatened to bench me for yelling at the refs and not cheering! ooops! Travis cheered for me as well. He was a huge supporter of my volleyball career. Knowing good and well that I would be moving away right after highschool to play volleyball. I remember saying goodbye to him the night before I left for Texas. Ouch it was the hardest thing I think I have ever had to do. Harder than telling him goodbye at the airport for his mission. I didn't know if we'd end up together, but he did. He knew we were supposed to be together forever.

AND HE WAS RIGHT!

(The night we got engaged)

So after his mission and my 3 years of college and volleyball we finally got married!

NOW SIX YEARS LATER(after we got married) and TWELVE YEARS LATER(after our first date) WE HAVE A FUN LITTLE FAMILY!

I couldn't ask for a better life! I LOVE YOU TRAVIS! Happy Anniversary!

Trip to Utah Part 2

The second half of our trip to Utah was with my family. This is our annual "Memories with Mom" reunion we have every year. We go to the condo at Bear Lake and stay a couple of days. We have a golf tournament (I finally won longest drive this year! :) ), Bunco party, and this year we had craft night for the girls while the guys had Wii tournaments. It sure was fun spending time with my family. It was great we were all able to come together since we all live apart. (Las Vegas, Idaho Falls, Spanish Fork, San Antonio, and Logan). I love my family so much and I especially love my mom so much for keeping us all so close. She is such an amazing person! She has been through so much in her life but you would never know it....because she is always smiling!!!!! I love you mom!

Ellie, Ben, and Sophie having a rice cake party! This picture is priceless of my mom and Larry playing eachother in Wii Tennis. If any of you know Larry this is out of his norm. He ended up bowling as well! Who says you ever grow up??

Travis and my mom playing Wii! My mom was awesome at tennis. Travis giving the kiddos a pull in the wagon. Ben wanted to help!

Sophie doing the bearcrawl on the beach! Sophie and Ben having a night out to the movies! (While their parents can eat dinner in peace)

Here are Sophie's cousins on my side of the family! L to R Sophie, Austin, Lyndsi, Ben, Makyla, Tyler, Megan, Derek, and Ellie. Then we celebrated my birthday at the condo with a yummy cookie cake I made.

Sophie had quite the weekend at Bear Lake. I think the picture of her throwing up on Nani shows how tired she was as well as how much junk she ate :)

Trip to Utah

BALDWIN FAMILY FUN

This was the first week of our trip back to Utah to visit family. This year we got smart and decided to split the time evenly between the two families due to the fact we always end of fighting about where we've spent the most time. So the first week we spent with Travis' family. We had so much fun. We played in the sand box (volleyball court) at the Baldwins, roasted marshmellows, went up the canyon for a cookout, fishing, fourwheeling (snowball fight on the top of the mountain) and last but not least the famous Baldwin outing to Lagoon. It was alot of fun having a kid this year at Lagoon. Sophie had a great time for the most part. It was fun seeing all of the cousins play together!

Lots of Excitement in June - Stolen Car, Sophie Walking and Sophie's Shiner,

Sophie's first ride and hopefully last in a cop car!

Yes, it's true our white car was stolen....It all started one Thursday morning with a police officer pounding at our door. I was of course scared because Travis was gone to South Texas and I never open the door when I am home by myself. I looked out the window and saw a police car and an officer. I opened the door to this "Are you missing a car????" of course not, I parked the car in the driveway last night...as I walked with the officer to my driveway my answer sooned change, yep I was missing a car. So after buckling Sophie's carseat into the police car and driving out to the stix of San Antonio there was our innocent white civic that had been taken advantage of. It was stolen for parts. The bad people who stole it broke in the car and hot wired it. So now 3 weeks later of having it fixed we have our car back in the driveway....except this time we have sensor lights in the driveway (more like stadium lights) and a club on the steering wheel. The sad thing about it is that the parts they stole weren't even the expensive parts to fix. I would have given them the key to my car instead of them breaking the steering column or better yet I would have given them the money to buy them the part they needed. But when it's all said and done everything happens for a reason...I'd like to believe the people who did it needed the money for thier starving kids. Plus no one got hurt and we are still very blessed.

Sophie's Wagon, Black Eye, and YEAH FIRST STEPS!!!

FINALLY, we got Sophie's Birthday present....A WAGON. My Dad and his wife and my great friend, more like 2nd Mom Phyllis from Beaumont sent her money for her birthday so we wanted to get her a wagon with it! She loves riding in the wagon and so do I! I think it will fit our whole family in it someday! Sophie starting taking her first steps on her own around June 15th. Then on the 16th My friend Heidi brought her kids over for awhile and Sophie saw Logan walking and she started walking after him. Then Sophie got a little too comfortable and fell and hit the edge of the chair. I felt so bad for her. It swelled up so fast. I wanted to cry but realized this is just the beginning of bumps and bruises!

Wilton Course 1

In May I completed the Wilton Course 1 class with my good friend Kaylynne. I had so much fun that I took Course 2 in June (have to finish the class in July because of vacation) and will take Course 3 in July. In course 1 we learned the wilton rose, star, shell border, sweet pea, drop flower and piping figures. I personally like the drop flower the best. Every week I would come home with a different cake. Travis would take pictures of me with my creations. I felt like a little school girl getting praise for my hardwork at school :) Here are the cakes I completed in order:

Week 2 - Star tip pratice

WEEK 3 - Piping Figures (clowns/striping the bag and roses (which I am horrible at)

WEEK 4 FINAL CAKE - attempt to master the Wilton Rose

This is my good friend Kaylynne whom I have been taking cake decorating classes with. She is sooooo good at decorating. Her roses are amazing. Check out her cakes using the Link on my blog called Kaylynne. I'll post pictures of Course 2 when I finish up in July as well as Course 3. Oh before I forget if anyone is interested in taking cake decorating classes, Michaels courses are 50% off this month and you get a free gift. Plus this week you can print a 50% coupon on 1 item so you could get your Student kit for the class for half off. Just thought I would pass on the great offers.